America as the "Melting Pot" of peoples is a picture often drawn by writers who do not trouble themselves as to the precision of their figures of speech. It has been supposed by many that all the racial stocks in the United States were tending toward a uniform type. There has never been any real evidence on which to base such a view, and the study completed in 1917 by Dr. Aleš Hrdlička, curator of the division of physical anthropology of the U. S. National Museum, furnishes evidence against it. He examined 400 individuals of the Old White American stock, that is, persons all of whose ancestors had been in the United States as far as the fourth ascending generation. He found little or no evidence that hereditary traits had been altered. Even the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, the Virginia cavaliers, the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Huguenots, while possibly not as much unlike as their ancestors were, are in no sense a blend.
The "Melting Pot," it must be concluded, is a figure of speech; and as far as physical anthropology is concerned, it will not be anything more in this country, at least for many centuries.
Announcing the results of study of the first 100 males and 100 females of his series,[199] Dr. Hrdlička said, "The most striking result of the examinations is the great range of variation among Old Americans in nearly all the important measurements. The range of variation is such that in some of the most significant determinations it equals not only the variation of any one group, but the combined variations of all the groups that enter into the composition of the Americans." This fact would be interpreted by the geneticist as an evidence of hybridity. It is clear that, at the very beginning, a number of diverse, although not widely differing, stocks must have made up the colonial population; and intermarriage and the influence of the environment have not welded these stocks into one blend, but have merely produced a mosaic-like mixture. This is good evidence of the permanence of inherited traits, although it must be qualified by the statement that it does not apply equally to all features of the body, the face, hands and feet having been found less variable, for instance, than stature and form of head.
THE "MEAN MAN" OF THE OLD WHITE AMERICAN STOCK
Fig. 45.—Anthropologists have an ideal "mean man," whose every feature measures the arithmetic mean or average of that feature in all the individuals of his race. The above diagram drawn to scale from Dr. Hrdlička's measurements represents the mean man of Colonial ancestry. The outline of the face is almost oblong; the head is high and well-developed, particularly in the regions which are popularly supposed to denote superior intelligence. In general, it is a highly specialized type, denoting an advanced evolution.
The stature of both American men and women is high, higher than the average of any European nation except the Scotch. The individual variation is, however, enormous, amounting to 16.4% of the average in males and nearly 16% in females. For males, 174 cm. is the average height, for females 162. The arm spread in males is greater than their stature, in females it is less.
The average weight of the males is 154 lbs.[typo: missing comma?] of the females 130. Taking into consideration the tall stature, these weights are about equal to those among Europeans.
The general proportions of the body must be classed as medium, but great fluctuations are shown.